Murder victim identified as Upper Lake man

A man found dead in an apparent homicide Monday has been identified as an Upper Lake man, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported.

MCSO Capt. Greg Van Patten said the man found shot to death while camping near marijuana plants in Laytonville was Hugo Olea-Lopez, 23, of Upper Lake. He said the results of an autopsy performed Wednesday on Olea-Lopez revealed he died of a single gunshot wound to the torso.

Van Patten described the case as a "very active investigation," and that as of Thursday afternoon, no motive and no suspects had been identified.

After receiving a tip from a family member of the victim Monday morning regarding a possible homicide, personnel from the MCSO and other agencies responded to a remote location on Spyrock Road and found his body.

Olea-Lopez was found to be camping near about 300 "budding marijuana plants that had been recently cut," but Van Patten said there was no obvious evidence of any plants having been stolen.

The plants were growing both outside and inside of at least "two temporary greenhouse structures," and Van Patten said the grow was an example of a second marijuana harvest season law enforcement officers have noticed in the last two years.

Rather than just growing plants outdoors and harvesting the buds in September and October, Van Patten said growers are starting an earlier harvest in greenhouses and using light deprivation to trick the plants into thinking it's fall to get them to produce buds in early summer.

Van Patten said this practice of creating two harvests was seen last year, and has expanded this year.

"(Growers) have evolved, and we've gotten a whole lot busier," he said, adding that a similar type of grow was involved in the shooting incident between a MCSO deputy and a suspect in Willits earlier this month. "We've seen a spike in activity."

The MCSO has been assisted so far in the latest investigation by the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, the Mendocino District Attorney's Office and the Ukiah Police Department.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to call the MCSO Tip-Line at 707-234-2100.